The Council of Agriculture (COA) is encouraging restaurant owners who serve 100% rice products to adopt the Taiwan Rice Quality Seal. The aim is to help people become aware of the source of rice they are eating and encourage them to consume more rice produced in Taiwan. Presently there are already six companies which agreed to be the first ones to be so, including Taiwan Railway Lunch Box, Wu Tau Lunch Box, Formosa Chang, Taiwan Yoshinoya, Ootoya Japanese Restaurant, and MOS Burger. A total of 593 chain stores from now on will show the TAIWAN RICE quality seal, ensuring food safety for consumers.

TAIWAN RICE seal ensures 100% safe dining experience

Statistics showed that 70% of the people eat their daily meals outside. After the rice-mixing scandal in 2013, the provenance of the rice served in restaurants has become a popular topic. In order for Taiwan's quality rice to be recognized by consumers and to establish the positive image that "Restaurants prefer 100% Taiwan produced rice, consumers enjoy 100% safe food", the COA is launching the TAIWAN RICE quality seal which are to be displayed by the restaurants that serve 100% Taiwanese rice. Once the eat-out population is accustomed to recognizing the seal, locally-produced rice consumption volume is expected to increase greatly. The first six participating restaurant chains will serve as role models for other restaurants.

The aforementioned restaurants have all passed the on-site inspection and the COA confirmed their 100% utilization of Taiwanese rice. During the promotional period, Certified Agricultural Standards (CAS) will continue to conduct regular inspection of stock rice, and carry out walk-in random inspections irregularly in order to offer more protection to consumer's rights.

Make sure to find the TAIWAN RICE quality seal in a sea of restaurants!

The six participating restaurants not only feature their quality rice but offer a great variety of choices to satisfy different customers' demands: the younger generation digs MOS Burger's rice burgers or Taiwan Yoshinoya's beef rice (gyudon), white-collar workers consider Ootoya Japanese Restaurant's set meals ideal for gatherings, large orders of Wu Tau's lunch boxes are preferred by companies, Taiwan Railway's lunch boxes have a die-hard gourmet fan base, and Formosa Chang's traditional braised pork rice is well-loved for ages. These six restaurants share the common characteristic of entirely using 100% Taiwan-grown rice. Working with the TAIWAN RICE quality seal campaign, they offer more choices for people to eat out safely.

The TAIWAN RICE quality seal lets you eat out safely

The COA added that the design of TAIWAN RICE seal incorporates the work of veteran calligrapher Master Chang Ching-yao. The seal features ripe spikes of rice and the island of Taiwan, where it conveys the simplicity of " Formosa Taiwan & Taiwan's rice" so that people can easily identify the products. In the future, the seal would be posted in stores or printed on product packages which are owned by these six companies. It is estimated that in Taiwan, there are 220 Wu Tau stores, 236 MOS Burger shops, 51 Taiwan Yoshinoya's restaurants, 48 Formosa Chang's restaurants, 17 Ootoya Japanese restaurants, 21 Taiwan Railway's vending posts. In those places, people are able to purchase TAIWAN RICE certified products. When traveling or eating out, just make sure you find the seal, and it will be guaranteed they use 100% Taiwan safety rice.